FDA & Scientific Research Determines a Medicine, Not Polling Results
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not approve of the use of smoked marijuana for so-called medical purposes, and its use is, therefore, unregulated. There are literally dozens of FDA-approved medications that can effectively deal with symptoms associated with many different medical conditions. Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug because it has no accepted medical value and has a high potential for addiction. There is no scientifically documented benefit for the use of crude marijuana for any medical purpose. In fact, crude smoked marijuana has been rejected by reputable national medical associations in the country including the American Medical Association, the American Ophthalmic Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the American Cancer Society. Proponents of the legislation of marijuana argue that the American College of Physicians has come out in favor of “medical” marijuana. This is not true. For example, the ACP supported research into cannabinoids such as THC but they specifically stated “The ACP encourages the use of non-smoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.” Smoked marijuana meets neither of these criteria. The Food and Drug Administration and medical community decide on questions of medicine - not special interest groups and not public opinion. Modern medicine relies on proven scientific research, not polling results.
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The American public determines the laws by which we are governed. At this point it is a foregone conclusion that marijuana will be once again legalized in the United States. Study after study after study has concluded that marijuana has innumerable medical benefits. Just go ask a few people who use it. Ask their doctors if they are in a place where prescriptions are available.
Drug Free America is supported by the alcohol industry. That should give pause to all of us.
Plus, their name: "Drug Free America". Really? Just take all of the legal mood altering drugs . By how much do they outnumber the small illegal set?
What tests do you refer too? It has been nearly impossible for anyone to get permission or funding
to test marijuana except in Israel. And they disagree with your stance. And it is possible that you don't know everything. I am sure that you fell strongly on your convictions but strong feelings don't make you right. The FDA has passed too many drugs as safe,only to recall them when people to start dropping dead taking them. Using them as a hammer for your protest might not be a good choice.
Just to make this easy, the DFAF Says here that it does not rely on polling to get results, when now they are plastering all over the media that "Marijuana is linked to Testicle Cancer" when this study was conducted by survey over the phone to get an answer... that seems like polling to me?
Scientific research alone determines medicine. FDA is just bureaucracy -- something medicine doesn't require to be substantial. The FDA has proven time and time again to be incompetent and unable to handle responsibilities, and if the public has anything to say about things (and guess what, they do!) the FDA is an endangered species of bureaucracy. I can guarantee you medical marijuana will be around long after the FDA ceases to exist, much like any natural medicine. You and others like you claim no medicinal value, without offering scientific proof, while at the same time claiming there is no scientific proof of marijuana's medicinal value, which is what professors like to call a lie. I won't pull out the H word here, but think about it.
"Modern medicine relies on proven scientific research, not polling results."
Then why is scientific research into the dangers (or lack thereof) and the medicinal value (or lack thereof) of marijuana virtually prohibited? You just proved your own arguments are completely invalid. According to your definition of modern medicine, the correct answer to the question "Is Marijuana a Good Medicine?" is "We have no idea, because the government stifles any independent scientific research into the matter." How can you possibly argue against it in the absence of valid scientific research, by just saying "well, this person and this person and this person say it's bad." By your own definition those arguments are useless! What people think (polling results) doesn't matter, science does - you said it perfectly!
If there is no dollar sign attached, the FDA has no interest. If there is, they seem to approve anything that goes before them, and look at the results over the last 10 years.
We cannot even track a food-born illness outbreak, let alone protect patients from being maimed and killed by drugs that are approved by the FDA.
You repeatedly use the phrase "modern medicine" in many of your articles against medical marijuana. But just how "modern" are the medicines to which you are referring? 25% of all "modern medicines" are made from plants used traditionally, not to mention that in Europe and North America, "over 50% of the population have used complimentary medicine... at least once" [ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs134/en /]